This. This is the problem with circuit design. Not Tilke – the attitude towards him. People seem oblivious to the fact that if you drop Tilke and replace him with someone else, nothing changes. Whoever would replace him is bound by the same constraints as Tilke. All they’ll produce is a “Tilkedrome” with a different name in the by-line.

@Pm. If all the tracks have to comply with safety standards, how are tracks like Spa, Silverstone, Albert park, and the Canadian GP still around? Surely they are within the safety regulations and norms, and yet they provide a lot of overtaking opportunity. Tilke just cant design a track that is safe, yet overtaking friendly. Tilke is more focussed on new designs and different circuit layouts instead of just designing a track that will provide a better show for spectators.

The figures being quoted are that the race costs 30m Euro, including 18m in Bernie fees. Ticket sales generated 10m Euro. Without the fee, they would only be short 2m, which isn’t a significant gap for the government to cover, and it would easily cover the tourism bucks generated into the local economy.

Obviously, the Bernie fee is necessary as it pays for a lot of the logistics specific to the venue which needs to be covered…but 18m seems excessive. He’s a billionaire from F1, so it’s clear that he takes a huge cut from that for his own use.

The reason he has publicly said he doesn’t want to lose it is because if he lets them out of the contract, he loses a lot of money. F1 needs a hard nosed business man to run the commercial side, and Bernie very much fits that description. It’s likely that his successor would be equally as hard nosed, as that’s what CVC would want. I just hope that they have a heart for the sport and secure GPs which are historically significant and give them a break on their fees.

Well if any of you have been following the news recently then Spain might be next in line to face financial meltdown, so vanity projects like Valencia may have to be scrapped. I doubt it brings in anywhere near as much revenue and tourism as Melbourne does, so it could be bye-bye Valencia…

Portugal is the next place in Europe to crumble, so anyone hoping for a switch to Portimao for the European GP is going to be disappointed. Rome seems to be the likely destination and happily clears up the question of which GP it was going to replace. Nobody will miss Valencia.